Transhumance

More sheepishness  in the Flickr album.

Our local shepherdess Magali invited us to go along with her to the transhumance of sheep to summer pastures in the Montagne Noire. She's actually sold most of her sheep now, but they were part of the group and she was invited to help (by herding the humans tagging along behind the sheep; she reckoned herding sheep was easier by far).

It meant an early rise to be in Villeneuve-Minervois by 7:30. First challenge was rounding the 200 or so sheep up and getting them headed in the right direction. Once this was achieved, they set off at a fair whack; I was slightly worried at the prospect of maintaining this pace for 6 km, but once we were out of the village, they found all sorts of interesting snacks on the verges and steep roadside banks, requiring intervention from the half dozen shepherds to keep them in line. As you can see (extra) some sheep had been dressed up for the occasion.

It was a noisy and slow process; after two hours we reached Cabrespine, allowing a queue of a dozen more or less patient drivers to pass us. Here the sheep were herded into a field while the humans gathered round to drink coffee and eat cake, passing the time till lunch chatting and listening to a shepherds' choir from Tarascon. The lunch laid on for those who'd booked was, erm, barbecued lamb, but we'd brought sandwiches. It was quite chilly, with a brisk wind and occasional spits of rain, so once we'd eaten them we headed back home (S having obligingly yomped back over the hill to fetch the car while Ingrid and I sat around drinking coffee).

At home I had just time to make my second batch of marrow jam before we set off again to C's open studio. We spent longer than expected here, chatting to newly met people, and older acquaintances we hadn't seen in literally years (despite the fact they live very close by). Ingrid and I got C's wife S to give us a complete tour of their wonderful house; I'd already seen the ground floor, but the bedrooms have amazingly beautiful original floral wallpapers which must be at least 50 years old. We eventually dragged ourselves away as the evening got chilly, and a quiet evening at home is now in order.